Anyone who has acted in, watched or written about community theater is familiar with the bloopers of amateur stage productions – the botched lines and uncomfortable pauses, the uncooperative sound systems, costume mishaps and awkward blocking. Understanding they are part of the process, forgiving theater fans mostly ignore them.
In Rick Abbot’s play, “Play On!,” however, stage goofs are impossible to ignore. Instead, they are central to the story, a farce about a community theater production where everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.
Durango LIVEly Arts Co. is bringing the humorous play-within-a-play to the stage of the Durango Arts Center Theater with an opening performance today. Director Wendy Ludgewait said it’s a light and lively production that has a lot of resonance with DLAC, a community theater program that has been producing all-volunteer plays in Durango for 30 years.
“In some ways it’s kind of my love letter to all the people who have stuck by Durango LIVEly Arts,” she said.
The play opens three days before the cast of a community theater troupe is scheduled to run dress rehearsal on “Murder Most Foul,” a ludicrous and convoluted murder mystery set in Victorian England.
Things aren’t looking good: The troupe was given permission to perform “Murder Most Foul” without paying royalties, but in exchange must deal with the constant and maddening interference of the play’s writer Phyllis Montague (a delightfully insufferable Judy Hook).
Phyllis, who can’t seem to decide who the murderer should be, has already changed the script on the actors several times, and is unflagging in her meddling. On top of that, Violet (Katie Jank) struggles with her British accent, Saul (Bob Thom) keeps cracking mean jokes about Polly’s (Deb Heath) weight and sound designer Louise (Kim Welty) is experiencing some major technological issues.
Director Gerry Dunbar (a dynamic Mandy Gardner) does her best to shepherd the actors through the gamut of stumbling blocks, but petty squabbles and a problematic script are getting the best of them.
The murder mystery revolves around a supposedly cursed gemstone (though nobody can get its actual name right), and it appears the curse has touched this performance.
What ensues is any community theater group’s worst nightmare. Act II brings the actors to dress rehearsal, where, just days before opening night, Phyllis has made so many changes that she can’t even get the story straight. And Act III is the actual performance, a true stage fiasco of nervous line delivery, prop blunders, drunk actors and character breaking. Luckily, the characters find a wee bit of redemption at the end when Phyllis takes the stage for a speech.
“Play On!” can be painful to watch for anyone who has seen a cringe-worthy stage performance; I had to continually remind myself that every blunder was purposeful.
And while it may seem like an easy task to mess up on stage, authentically pulling off scripted errors and playing two characters – the actor and the actor’s character – is an impressive feat. Bradley Abeyta as Billy, along with Thom, Heath and Jank, all shine at the quick character switches.
“They’re making it look easy, but it’s really hard to do,” Ludgewait said.
The play’s funniest moments come with the errors we have all witnessed: nervous actors reciting their lines too fast, fake mustaches coming unglued, awkward prompts when people forget their lines and clumsy attempts to gloss over technical issues.
Along with providing a good laugh, Ludgewait said, “Play On!” also celebrates the people who pour their passion into community theater. DLAC, she said, gets that: it’s a true community theater company that is produced by and for members of the community. There is no pre-casting, actors aren’t paid and the mission is to make performing arts accessible to everyone.
“It’s really just a labor of love,” Ludgewait said.
kklingsporn@durangoherald.com
If you go
The Durango LIVEly Arts Co. production of “Play On!” will open at 7 p.m. today at the Durango Arts Center Theater, 802 East Second Ave. Performances will continue at 7 p.m. Saturday and Nov. 21-22, and 2 p.m. Nov. 22. Tickets are $15.
